Salt Lake City is a great place to live.
But as we grow, many of our friends, neighbors, and families are being priced out and having to leave the community they love.
A future for Salt Lake City shaped by the community, to make it a place where we all can thrive.
Thriving in Place is a community-driven process to better understand the forces and impacts of gentrification and displacement in Salt Lake City, and identify actionable policies that can help people stay and thrive in our community as we grow.
Salt Lake City has seen significant growth and investment in recent years, but not all are benefitting.
Cities thrive when all their residents have access to safe, stable, and affordable housing, healthy neighborhoods and good jobs.
Growth pressures can drive housing prices up, making them unaffordable for many residents—especially lower income residents and those on fixed incomes. Evictions, foreclosures and demolitions often accompany growth-related change.
Even when new housing is built, it often doesn’t serve the people who have been living in that neighborhood for years—raising their families, caring for loved ones, and contributing to the life and vitality of our community.
When incomes and housing costs are out of sync, people are displaced: to a different neighborhood, a different city, or—far too often—to the street, with deep and lasting impacts on them, their children, and our entire community.
Combatting displacement is crucial for a healthy, prosperous Salt Lake City.
Equitable development benefits current residents and helps them stay in their neighborhoods.
What is the Anti-Displacement Strategy?
We know a lot about how displacement works, but we need to measure and understand its specific patterns and impacts, including how it is affecting the lives of people in our community. Through this process, we measured and mapped data about gentrification and displacement in Salt Lake City and surrounding areas and collected information from residents about their experiences and perspectives.
WHAT
Through a community-driven engagement process, the City has developed a Draft Anti-Displacement Strategy to define and document displacement in our community and advance policies, programs, and strategies to counter displacement.
We aim to balance growth and investment with the preservation of community assets and opportunities for equitable development that benefit all residents. Through this process and the actions it sets in motion, we seek to combat involuntary displacement, help residents benefit from community investments, and continue making Salt Lake City a great place to live.
HOW
Phase One: Listening and Learning
We partnered with community groups, service agencies, and residents to better understand the impacts of gentrification and displacement across Salt Lake City. This involved gathering and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. Your participation—sharing your stories, ideas, and perspectives—has helped us better understand these issues and challenges as well opportunities across our neighborhoods.
Read about what we heard and learned in Phase One
Phase Two: Crafting Collaborative Solutions
To City worked with other government agencies, community-based organizations, and community leaders to define and prioritize coordinated, actionable policies in response to the key takeaways from Phase One.
More housing options and equitable development will support the diverse communities that make Salt Lake City vibrant, helping them stay here, benefit from investments, and continue making our city a great place.
